March 5-6, 1977 Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Melbourne, AUS
Sidney Myer Music Bowl – 8.30pm King’s Domain, Linlithgow Avenue, Melbourne Tickets: $12.50 for seats and $9.00 for lawn area Sound Rehearsal 4.00pm On Saturday, March 5, Abba boarded their chartered Boeing 707 and flew to Melbourne to continue the tour. The airport reception was somewhat quieter than in Sydney – only about 100 fans greeted Abba this time, but it turned out to be the calm before the storm, for once they had reached the city a truly amazing welcome awaited them. At 12.30pm Abba were scheduled to attend a Lord Mayor’s reception in the Melbourne Town Hall. When Abba arrived at the town hall in their Rolls Royces, an estimated 6,000 people stood cheering and screaming at them, many having waited for the group for several hours. “First, when you drive out from the airport and you see the street actually lined up all the way from the airport to the city, you don’t even believe your eyes,” recalled Frida. “And then you understand, ‘This is actually a reception for us, nobody else. It’s not the president coming’.” The Abba entourage stepped out of their cars, entered the building and climbed the stairs to the balcony to greet the crowd. When Abba finally stepped out on the balcony, the crowd erupted. All the group had to do was to stand there and wave. During the five minutes they appeared on the balcony, the screaming never died down. Afterwards, although the group was meant to stay and mingle with guests at the reception, they were too exhausted and were escorted back to their Rolls Royces. But when they got to the cars there were no drivers – the group wasn’t expected back for another 20 minutes. Hemmed in by watching crowds gripped by fever-pitch excitement that could bubble over into a riot at any moment, Abba had to wait in the cars for five very long minutes before the drivers returned. In the meantime, they were more or less forced to chat to the media and sign a few autographs. They eventually were able to get back to their hotel and prepare for that night's concert at Sidney Myer Music Bowl. That night ABBA performed the first of their 3 concerts in Melbourne at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, a fabulous permanent open-air performance venue, inspired by and named after Sidney Myer, an Australian business man best known for creating ‘Myer’ – Australia’s largest chain of department stores. Sidney Myer is also remembered for establishing free, open-air concerts in Melbourne in 1929, which continue to this day at the Music Bowl. Construction of the Bowl was funded by the Sidney Myer Fund and the venue was officially opened in 1959. Of course, a venue of this type situated in a Botanical Gardens, poses a slight problem as to how to separate the paying audience from ‘freeloaders’ as they are described by a radio reporter for 3XY who was on the scene. So a fence was erected, with green plastic attached to wire, enclosing the event area. This idea actually worked really well – apart from the fact that it did nothing to stop the freeloaders from being able to see and hear ABBA quite clearly – especially as the ground area extends upwards from the stage. This concert was a sellout of course with 14,500 tickets sold for the show. However, there were a further 16,000 people who enjoyed the concert from outside the fence. ABBA had already had a busy day before stepping on to the stage in Melbourne. They arrived in Melbourne very early in the morning, and had attended an afternoon Civic reception at Melbourne Town Hall, where they were greeted by around 6000 fans. Attending the concert was Australia’s Prime Minister at that time, Malcolm Fraser, and his family. Fraser's attending the concert was due to the fact that ABBA’s schedule had not allowed for them to go to Canberra to meet the Prime Minister – so he had to come to them. Unfortunately for Malcom Fraser, attending this concert did not help his image with the Australian public and in fact, when his entrance to the Music Bowl was announced, he was booed by the audience. The setlist for this show was shortened by 3 songs due to Bjorn having a slightly croaky voice and a sore throat. He says during the concert that this is a result of the rain in Sydney. The 3 songs the audience missed out on were Sitting In The Palm Tree, Rock Me and So Long. Apart from Bjorn’s throat, the show went on without issue. Finally, after what had to be an absolutely exhausting day, ABBA went back to The Chateau Commodore to get some much needed rest before performing 2 concerts the following day. On Sunday 6th March 1977 ABBA performed the second of their 3 concerts in Melbourne at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl – a day concert starting at 2.30pm. They then returned again at 8.30pm that night for their last show in Melbourne. As with the previous concert here, both shows were sold out, and there were still just as many people outside the fence during the shows. Bjorn was still not well during these performances and it is likely that some songs were omitted as with the night before. The 8.30pm show would be the last concert for Melbourne, but ABBA would remain in Melbourne on Monday 7th March, and enjoy some rest and relaxation before heading to their next destination, Adelaide. Agnetha, Frida and Benny spent a nice leisurely 5 hours cruising on Port Phillip Bay. Unfortunately, Bjorn was too sick to enjoy the day out with the others and opted to stay at the hotel and rest. Covering 1,950 square kilometres, Port Phillip is the entrance to Australia's busiest port and is one of Victoria's most popular recreational destinations. Although Port Phillip is commonly referred to as 'the Bay' or 'Port Phillip Bay', Port Phillip is actually not a bay at all. It's a local port area that is actually made up of over 16 bays. The cabin cruiser they spent the afternoon on was a charter boat that belonged to a Melbourne family and was called Killara II. They boarded Killara II at Station Pier on Port Phillip at around 12pm and set off for the afternoon. They spent a little time ashore on a lonely stretch of beach where some of their sound crew went swimming – and returned to Station Pier at 5pm.